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Thursday, 19 December 2013

The Internet Makes Me Angry

Yesterday someone
left me an unfavourable review, which is fine, as they’re perfectly entitled to
their opinion, even if it’s rather insulting. For some reason, after I read it,
I sat on the sofa eating brie and feeling cross. It didn’t take long for
mild displeasure to turn to dislike then, after some serious brooding, to hate.
The Internet makes me angry.

There’s
something about the anonymity of the Internet which has left me terribly
damaged. I’m sure it started playing first person shooters. There’s nothing
like going on a virtual rampage to make you feel that violence is somehow fine.
Last week I had this conversation with my wife:

Wife: If someone killed me would you kill them?

Me: Yes.

Wife: Are
you sure?

Me: Yes

Wife: Would
you feel bad?

Me: No.

Wife: Would
you use a gun?

Me: No. I’d
want to use my hands.

See? When
she was asleep, I spent some time worrying if I was normal. Probably not. And I
blame the Internet.

I’m sure it turns
people to the dark side. It’s full of vile and venom. It’s the freedom to say
and do whatever you want. People feel safe behind their laptops, slating everyone
else, raising the average levels of hate in the world to record heights.

Comment
sections are now one of my favourite reads. I skim through articles so I can
get to the real stuff – the bile that spills out below. Safe behind their
online personas, we see the dregs of the online community: racists, trolls, antagonists
and, worst of all, pointless pedants. Plenty of humour to be found as well, of
course, but it’s drowning beneath an angry sea of hate.

Is the
damage irreversible? Probably. A whole species imploding as online the body
count rises, comment sections sprawl out of control like a mutated virus and everyone
becomes so addicted to giving their own stupid and pointless opinions that evolution
decelerates then reverses, sending us back to the trees as hairless chimps.